


Knowing and the Known

by HuiLian



Category: DCU (Comics), New Teen Titans, Titans (Comics)
Genre: Coffee, Coffee dates between the two of them!, Fluff and Angst, Friendship, Gen, the two of them are best friends!!!!!!!!!, there's a blink and you'll miss it reference to dickkory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 23:09:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27574294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HuiLian/pseuds/HuiLian
Summary: Five (plus one) times Dick and Donna get coffee together, and all that entails when the two of you have been fighting crime together for years and known each other for as long.From NTT all the way to Rebirth, a look at Dick and Donna's friendship glimpsed from their coffee-dates.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Donna Troy
Comments: 9
Kudos: 60
Collections: Dick Grayson Fic Exchange 2020





	Knowing and the Known

**Author's Note:**

  * For [amuk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/amuk/gifts).



> hi! i hope you enjoy reading this as much as i enjoy writing this! i took your second prompt, Dick and Donna go on a friend-date, and make it a 5+1 fic. I hope that's okay!
> 
> uncharacteristically for me, this fic has a lot of references to canon. there's a list of all the canon references down in the author's note, but this fic should read fine without knowing all the references! it would just be more fun!
> 
> thank you so much for [ CK ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CKBookish/pseuds/CKBookish) who kindly offered to beta this and gave the title!

“Are we still on for that coffee date this afternoon?” 

“Donna!” Dick turns around, a smile on his face. 

Donna leans on the doorway and smiles back. It’s good to see Dick happy again after that fiasco with Brother Blood. Kori really is good for him. 

Then, Donna thinks about the spar the two of them had yesterday, and her smile grows even wider. Kori is good for her, too. 

“What are you doing?” she asks, voice turning suspicious, because Dick is _not_ supposed to be up yet. His bandages had just been taken off a couple of hours ago, the wounds from that blast he took from Brother Blood barely healed. He should be resting, _healing_. 

Dick’s face immediately turns slack. Donna _just knows_ that she’s not going to like whatever it is that will come out of his mouth. “Um... reports?” Dick says. 

Damnit. He’s going to get himself killed doing this. “Richard John Grayson!” Donna scolds. “You’re supposed to be resting!”

“I am! I’m sitting down and everything!”

Donna glares at him. He knows perfectly well that that’s not what she meant. 

Slowly, a thought emerges. She has a weapon now. Something that will win even against the most stubborn episodes of Dick Grayson refusing to care for himself properly. 

She has Kori. 

“I’m telling Kori,” Donna says triumphantly. 

“No!” Dick says quickly, almost jumping up. “Don’t tell Kori.”

“Then stop working and come with me to get some coffee.”

“Shouldn’t you be working on the wedding plans instead of bothering me?” Dick asks. 

Donna claps her hands once and holds her hands open before her, exaggerating the movement, before she says, “That’s it. I’m calling Kori.”

Dick looks at her. Donna looks back. 

She is already moving her hand to take her phone from her pocket before Dick shakes his head and laughs. “Alright, alright, Don. I give up.” He raises his hands, still laughing. “You win.”

“Damn right I do.” Donna tilts her head up in winning pride. Then, she jerks them to the door and says, “Now come on. Put on your coat and let’s get coffee. I’m _not_ drinking the swill that Gar makes.”

“Like your cafe’s is any better?” Dick teases. 

“Don’t you dare slander The Dancing Goat!” Donna says, slapping Dick’s unijured arm, _lightly_. She is _not_ going to be the reason Dick’s stitches open again. “Their coffee is amazing!”

“Amazing for you, maybe!”

“You’re going to pay for that, Boy Wonder,” Donna says, already readying her fingers for an attack. Honestly, she has known him for _years_. Does he forget that she knows _all_ the ways to make him surrender? 

“Bring it on, Wonder Girl,” Dick challenges. Oh no. This won’t end well. He also knows all the ways to make _Donna_ surrender. 

She wins the tickle fight, _barely_. Not that she’s going to tell him that. She pins him down, still mindful of the injuries Dick has. “Yield!” she says.

“No!”

“Yield!”

Dick struggles for a few more moments, but Donna is an Amazon. Dick has no chance of escaping. 

Finally, Dick goes limp and huffs, “Fine. You win. Again.”

Donna laughs, but she keeps her hold. “What do you say?” she asks, teasingly. 

“Ugh, Don,” Dick whines. “Do I have to?”

“Unless you want to stay here for the entire day, which I am happy to oblige, yes. You have to.”

Dick sighs, but Donna knows that it’s just a ruse. He’s enjoying this as much as she does. 

“Donna Troy,” Dick begins, in a tone that is long suffering, “you are older, smarter, and prettier than me, and that’s why you will always win.”

“Damn right, I am,” Donna says, keeping her hold for another few seconds before finally letting go. “And don’t you dare forget it.”

Dick makes a face at her, and she makes one right back at him. 

“Now,” Donna says, putting her hands on her hip, “are we getting that coffee or not?”

“Yes, Donna,” Dick answers, pulling the syllables to form a truly misshapen sentence. 

They get the coffee. Dick doesn’t even complain, much. 

***

Dick hears a knock on his apartment door. He’s not expecting anyone today, is he? 

He walks over to the door, thinking of people who would knock on his door and dismissing them down as quickly. He doesn’t have any plans with Babs today, Tim always calls before coming over, Bruce isn't going to come over in day time, and he just met up with Clancy yesterday. Dick opens the peephole, and smiles instantly. 

It’s Donna. 

He immediately opens the door. “What are you doing here?” he asks, as soon as he can see Donna’s face. 

“What? No hello?”

Dick sticks his tongue out, but then complies. “Hello, Donna,” he says mockingly. “What brings you to my humble abode this fine morning?”

Donna huffs. “Morning, more like afternoon, Grayson.”

“It’s morning for me,” Dick answers without missing a beat. “But seriously, Don, do you need anything?” he asks, already thinking of what Donna might need from him. He just saw her yesterday with that party with the Titans, but then again, in their lives, even an hour can change everything. 

“Can’t I just… come here to see you?” Donna says, shrugging her shoulders. 

Oh. “Of course you can, Don.” Dick moves away from the door and lets her in. Then, he remembers that his couch is still filled with his Nightwing files and all of his chairs, except one, is also littered with files from all the other cases he takes on. BPD files, Titans files, some of Bruce’s files, and all the other miscellaneous files he has because someone asks for help. “Um, let me just… clean the place up a bit.”

Donna laughs. “Oh Dick, you never change.” She walks in and deftly moves the files on the couch to give her room to sit. Normally, Dick would be furious if someone touched his files. But this is Donna. Somehow, she knows exactly what system Dick uses, and even if she moves them around, he always knows how to find it again. 

So Dick left her to it, turning on the coffee machine and opening his fridge to see if he could scrooge up something to eat for the two of them. 

Damn it. He forgot to go grocery shopping, _again._

“What are you doing way over there, Dick?” Donna calls out. “I’m here to see _you_ , not your fridge door!”

“A minute, Don!” he calls back. 

But, before he knows it, Donna pushes him back from the fridge and shuts the door. “Dick,” she says, “seriously, don’t worry about it. I’m here to see _you_ , not to eat you out of house and home.” Then, her expression turns mischievous. “I’m not Wally.”

Dick huffs a laugh too. He can’t help it. “Fine. Your loss.”

“Uh, no, because I’m dragging you out. How long has it been since you last went out for something _not_ related to a case?”

“Um, yesterday, for your party?”

“Doesn’t count. You were in uniform. Try again.”

Dick opens his mouth, then closes it again.

“That’s what I thought.” Donna nods. “Come on. Let’s see what Bludhaven has to offer.” 

Dick opens his mouth, again, to protest, but then he closes it again. Who is he kidding? This is Donna. She’s not going to take no for an answer. 

He sighs, rolling his eyes to add to the drama of it all, but he finally answers, “There’s a Taiwanese tea shop just around the corner. I’ve been meaning to try it for a while now.” 

“Perfect!” Donna raises her hand. “Let’s go! I have been dying to know what the craze for bubble tea is all about!” 

Dick smiles. “You’re always right, aren’t you, Don?”

“Of course I am! And if the place is good, maybe we’ll bring the whole gang along next time! It’ll be fun!”

“Oh no,” Dick shakes his head, “not the whole gang. Do you _want_ to ruin their shop, is that it, Donna?” 

“Shut up!” Donna punches him in the arm. “They’re not that bad!”

“Yeah? Okay, let me see. Do you want the list of incidences alphabetically or chronologically?”

She punches him in the arm again. “They’re not that bad!” she protests. Then, she stops and frowns. “We’re not that bad, are we?”

Dick shakes his head. Memories of pages and pages of accounting sheets littering his entire desk greets him. He shudders and says, “Be grateful you don’t have to do the Titan’s accounting, Don.”

“Are we?” Donna grimaces. 

“We are.” 

Donna sighs. “Alright, no bringing the rest of the gang then. Now come on, Grayson! We don’t want you late for your shift, do we?”

“ _I_ don’t want to be late for my shift. For all I know, you people are conspiring to _always_ make me late.”

“No, we don't!”

“Yes, you do. Just last week, you-”

“That was Toni’s fault and you know it!”

“Uh huh. And what about the week before that?”

“That’s Roy’s fault.”

“And what about-”

“Alright, alright! I get your point, _Dick_. Now come on. I want to try the tea!”

Dick huffs another laugh, before taking his coat from the door and offering his arm to Donna. She laughs too, before taking his arm and opening the door of his apartment. 

***

They make it a habit now. After Roy told her about how Dick was after her death, she makes the time to come to Dick’s place and have coffee every now and then. Her heart still clenches whenever she remembers what happened to Dick the entire time she was gone.

She only hears bits and pieces, piecing it together from what Roy told her, what Wally told her, what Cassie, who heard from Tim, told her. But then, Cassie and Tim are handling their own grief.

So, even with her donning her new uniform, with all its legacy and expectations, she makes the time to come and see Dick. To see all of her friends, really. She misses them. When the Titans of Myth had taken her memories, she knew she was missing something as dear to her as a piece of her soul. Now that she remembers them again, she’s going to make up for all that lost time.

"So I was trying to find out at this building, and suddenly someone just grabbed me and put me into this outfit!” Dick rants, gesturing all over the place with his hands. “She started talking about outfits and backgrounds and the next thing I know I'm a model! All that while trying to figure out why Jason is running around as me!"

Donna blinks. "Say that again?" she asks.

Dick stops talking and frowns. "Donna?” he asks. “Are you okay? I said I was trying to figure out why Jason was running around as me."

Donna shakes her head. She knows that Dick is thinking about worst-case scenarios now. He’s probably already compiling lists of drugs that can affect an Amazon. But this is not about that. "No, no, no,” she says. “Before that. You were a model?"

"Oh, that.” Dick shrugs. “Yeah, someone saw me, grabbed me inside and started dressing me up."

How dare he?! How dare he be so flippant about it! Donna has been trying to get him to model for her for _years_ , and here he is, telling her that someone else got to him first! 

" _Richard John Grayson!_ " she shouts. “How _dare_ you model for someone else before me!”

Dick's eyes widened. Good. Serves him right, letting other people take photos of him before Donna. _Donna._ She has been his friend since _both_ of them have been wearing leotards. She has been asking him to model for her for almost as long. 

How _dare_ he. 

"I thought I'm your friend, Dick,” she says, letting just a hint of snide enter her voice. “Apparently not." 

"Donna, Donna,” Dick scrambles to say, “I'm sorry. I-"

She cuts him off before he can finish the sentence."So that's how you treat your friends, huh, Grayson?"

"I…" 

Dick's face looks stricken. Donna can't remember the last time he looked so shocked. She milks the moment for a while, then decides to put him out of his misery. 

She bursts out laughing. "Your…face!" Donna gasps out in between. She wipes tears from her eyes, and says, "Oh, I wish I brought my camera! Roy's never going to believe this!"

" _Donnaaaaaaa,_ " Dick says, exasperated

"Diiiiiick,” she replies back. 

They stare at each other for a while, Donna holding her laughter in to participate, before Donna can’t take it anymore. She bursts out laughing again. 

How long has it been since she last laughed like this? 

From the corner of her eye, she sees Dick doing that weird thing with his mouth that means he’s also holding in laughter. Donna laughs harder, trying to get Dick to join in. 

It worked. It was a small laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. It felt like a victory. 

Is that what it meant to grow up? To make laughter, the thing that used to trail behind them all the time, ready to be called into action at a moment’s notice, so rare that it felt like a victory whenever they laughed together?

Is _this_ really what growing up means?

Donna takes a few breaths, trying to fill her lungs again after that bout of laughter. In front of her, Dick is still chuckling. 

Donna doesn’t take her eyes off of him. She wants to memorize this. She wants to litter her mind with the memories of her friends and family laughing, and she wants to keep them as deep in her mind as she can, so that no one can ever take those memories away from her ever again. 

“It’s good to see you laugh, Dick,” Donna says softly. 

“It’s good to see _you_ , Don,” Dick replies, eyes crinkling the way they always do whenever Dick wants to say something more but finds that he can’t. 

Her death really did a number on him, huh? One day she is going to ask him what happened, and on that day, she is going to hold him so tightly that he too, will never forget what it feels like to have his friends and family with him, but that day is not today. She steals his coffee cup and, after sticking her tongue out at him, takes a sip from it. 

Dick, predictably, squawks in indignation. Donna puts the cup down and laughs again, using the laugh to cover her hand moving in his direction. 

Drat. Curse him and his bat-reflexes. Dick catches her hand before she can poke him in the side. 

“Stealing my coffee and trying to poke me, Don?” Dick says, shaking his head. “How very _un_ Wonder Woman of you.”

“That’s what you get for not letting me photograph you.” Donna sticks her tongue out again. “And don’t talk to me about Wonder Woman. I don’t want to even _think_ about it now.”

Dick frowns immediately. “Do you need help, Don?”

Donna snorts. Of course Dick offers to help. It’s _Dick_. But she’s not going to dump her burdens on him, especially when he has so many of his own too. 

Donna lifts up the cup, her own this time, and says, “You’re already helping, Dick.”

She just wishes that her being here helps him too. 

***

Dick takes a look at the clock on his bedside table and curses. He’s late. He was supposed to be in New York for his standing coffee-date with Donna a couple of hours ago, and here he is, still in his bedroom in the Penthouse. 

What a disappointment he is. No wonder Damian is straining against his orders. 

Cursing again, Dick pulls the sheets off and steps out of the bed. He is already thinking of the excuse he’s going to give Donna. Saying that he forgot wouldn’t work, Donna knows him better than that, and saying that there’s a case would only make Donna want to know more. Hmm… maybe he could tell her that _Damian_ had something going on and he didn’t want to leave him? She doesn’t know Damian well enough to tell. 

Still musing, he opened the door of his bedroom, stepping out to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee, only to find Donna already there. In his kitchen. In Gotham. 

Shit. 

Donna gives him a small smile, giving Dick a cup of coffee with one hand while the other is holding her own cup. Dick accepts it, still too shocked to say anything. 

“I thought you had an emergency or something when you didn’t show up,” Donna says, and Dick is already preparing excuses after excuses in his mind, but her smile turned teasing and she continues, “but noooo, it’s just you being a sleepy head as usual.”

Dick looks at her, and when her smile doesn’t change, he gives her his own. “Try patrolling Gotham all night long and see how well _you_ do, Don,” he replies, silently thanking her for not asking, because if one more person asks ‘how are you doing?’, Dick might just break. 

No, he’s not fine. His dad died, and two of his siblings decided to up and leave the worsening Gotham, Jason tried to kill him, and Damian is… Damian. He is not fine.

But if anyone asks, he’ll tell them that yes, he is perfectly fine, thank you very much. What else can he say?

But Donna is Donna, and so she never had to ask. She sticks out her tongue at him and says, “Try driving to Gotham in rush hour and see how well _you_ do.” 

And with that, they’re off, talking about nothing and everything the rest of the morning. She told him about the last time she babysat Lian, after Roy had once again failed to get a babysitter when he had to leave on League business. He told her about all the things he’s changing in the costume, and complains about the cape weighing down his movements. 

They don’t talk about the reason he’s wearing the cape in the first place, and for that, he’s grateful. 

When they had finally drunk all the coffee in the pot that someone, most likely Alfred, had brewed for them, Donna puts her hand on his cheek and says solemnly, “We’re here for you, Rob. Don’t forget that, yeah?” 

Dick looks at her, at this best friend he’s had since what felt like forever, and smiles sadly. “I’ll try.” 

***

After the shock and the pain subsides a bit, they sit on the bed in the middle of her room in the Watchtower. Donna puts her head on Dick’s shoulder and says, “I feel like I’ve done this before.”

“Done what?” Dick asks.

“This. The whole not-knowing-who-I-am thing. The not-being-able-to-trust-myself thing.” She frowns, and then says, “I’ve done this before. I don’t know when, but I’ve done this before.” 

She turns to look at Dick, expecting him to do his usual spiel about logic and having proofs to base a deduction of, but he didn’t. He just looks down at the floor of this small room they call her quarters but are actually her cell. 

“Dick?” she asks, needing to know. If he says that he felt it too, then it must be true. 

And then she blinks, because she remembers that until a few months ago, she didn’t have any memories of the man sitting next to her. Now she trusts him with her life, and more besides. 

What can she trust, if she can’t trust her own memories? 

“Dick?” she prompts again. 

Dick bites his lip, before finally saying, “Sometimes I remember things I shouldn’t. Or remember different versions of events.”

“So I _have_ done this before.” 

“I don’t know, Don. But-” 

“But?” 

Dick sighs before saying again, “But I know what you mean. I remember this too. Not this,” he gestures to the room around them, “but… something else.” 

Donna looks at him, waiting to see whether or not he’s going to say anything more, but it seems that this is the most she’ll be able to drag out of him today. She wonders _how_ she knows that. 

She tilts her head up to look at the ceiling, and then, sick of looking at the symmetrical pattern there, closes her eyes. “We’re a mess.”

Dick snorts. “What makes you think that?” he teases. “That one of our own came seemingly out of nowhere? That we collectively had our memories erased? That we felt we’ve done something we shouldn’t have known before?”

She groans and then lets herself fall down on the bed. “Pick one. Actually, no. _All_ of them.” 

Dick snorts again, while Donna turns around in the bed, burying her face in the pillows. She can’t see what Dick is doing, but she can still feel his leg brushing against hers, and she knows that he’s still sitting on the edge of the bed. 

After a while, Donna groans again, muffled by the pillows, and grumbles, “I’m sick of this room.” 

“Do you want to go out?” Dick asks. 

“Where would I even go?” Donna turns again, freeing her face from the pillows. “They were nice about this, but face it, Dick, I’m a prisoner here.”

“We could go get coffee,” Dick says, shrugging. 

“Ew, the swill they have here?”

“Such little faith you have in me, Don,” Dick makes a face. “But yeah, I will admit that this place has _horrible_ coffee.” He pauses, and Donna just _knows_ he’s planning something. She sits up just as he says, “Let’s just steal B’s thermos. He brings Alfred’s coffee up here.” 

Donna is glad that she’s already sitting up, because she wants him to experience her expression of disbelief full on. “You want us. To steal _Batman’s_ coffee.” 

Dick shrugs. “I was thinking that _I’ll_ steal it, but if you want to do it, be my guest.”

“No, no, no,” Donna shakes her head. “You can be the one to do that, Rob. I’ll just wait for my coffee, thank you very much.” 

Dick makes a face again, but he does find the thermos eventually, and, after pouring all of the contents into two cups, gives one to Donna. It smells like the coffee she would get at an artisan cafe, and that doesn’t surprise her at all.

Donna takes the cup gratefully, and takes a long, long sip out of her cup, savoring the taste on her tongue. It’s good to know that even as her world crumbles underneath her, the taste of coffee is still the same. She swallows, and says, “Thank the gods for coffee.” 

“I thought _I_ was the one who got you this,” Dick protests, “but sure, thank your gods, Don.”

Donna sticks out her tongue at him, but eventually smiles. Thank the gods for coffee, indeed, but the thing she would thank them most for, is for friends like hers.

***

“So. What do we do now?” 

Robin shrugs. “We could always do our drills again. Failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and all that.” 

Donna didn’t realize she is making a face, but she must have, because Robin laughs and says, “Or we could do something else. Is there something you want to try?” 

Donna thinks for a moment, before saying, “Coffee. I want to know what all the hype about coffee is in Man’s World.” 

Robin gives her a smile so bright she couldn’t help but smile back. “We’re going to get along so well, Wonder Girl.” 

“You said it, Boy Wonder.” 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Canon references:  
> 1\. Scene one is around Tales of the Teen Titans #41-42, which is after the storyline with dick getting brainwashed by Brother Blood and just before the infamous Judas Contract. He and Kori had just started dating, and Donna is planning her wedding with Terry Long. Also, that line, older, smarter, and prettier, are from Titans (TV), which are not part of this, but i just love the line, so it's here!  
> 2\. Scene two is around Titans Secret Files, with Dick being in Bludhaven and was just made officer, and Donna having had another visit from her alternate self in Titans (1999) #25, which is also the party that was referenced.  
> 3\. Scene three is after the One Year Later storyline after Infinite Crisis. Dick is in New York, and Donna takes on Wonder Woman after Diana decides to take a break from it. Donna had just come back from the dead before Infinite Crisis, and Donna's death (combined with a lot of things happening to Dick in that point in time, which includes the Blockbuster and Tarantula storyline) had a huge impact on Dick (see Outsiders vol. 3). (The Tim and Cassie having their own grief is a reference for Infinite Crisis, in which Kon-El, Superboy, died).  
> Also, that scene Dick is describing came from Nightwing: Brothers in Blood storyline, or, as is more lovingly known, the Tentatodd storyline.  
> 4\. Scene four is after Bruce died in Final Crisis. Dick is just putting on the Cowl and becoming Batman.  
> 5\. Scene five is after Annual 1 in Titans (2016) and issue 20, in which the alternate Donna being evil storyline is explored again, and the result is that the Titans disband and Donna is asked to stay in the Watchtower. I didn't want to use Rebirth in this, but this was too good not to use!  
> 6\. Scene six is after their first meeting! I tried to find the original 1960s one, but couldn't find it, so this is based on Teen Titans Year One more than anything. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!!!!!!!!!!


End file.
